A number of spirited ballads[259] tell how Ossian, stranded in his old age upon earthly soil, unable to help himself or find his own food, is taken by St. Patrick into his house to be converted. The saint paints to him in the brightest colours the heaven which may be his own if he will but repent, and in the darkest the hell in which he tells him his old comrades now lie in anguish. Ossian replies to the saint’s arguments, entreaties, and threats in language which is extraordinarily frank. He will not believe that heaven could be closed to the Fenians if they wished to enter it, or that God himself would not be proud to claim friendship with Finn. And if it be not so, what is the use to him of eternal life where there is no hunting, or wooing fair women, or listening to the songs and tales of bards? No, he will go to the Fenians, whether they sit at the feast or in the fire; and so he dies as he had lived. ----- Footnote 223: The translations of Fenian stories are numerous. The reader will find many of them popularly retold in Lady Gregory’s _Gods and Fighting Men_. Thence he may pass on to Mr. Standish Hayes O’Grady’s _Silva Gadelica_; the _Waifs and Strays of Celtic Tradition_, especially Vol. IV; Mr. J. G. Campbell’s _The Fians_; as well as the volumes of the _Revue Celtique_ and the _Transactions of the Ossianic Society_. Footnote 224: See O’Curry’s translation in Appendix CXXVIII to his _MS. Materials_. Footnote 225: The story, found in the Book of the Dun Cow, appears in French in De Jubainville’s _Épopée Celtique_. Footnote 226: This famous story is told in several MSS. of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. For translations see Dr. Whitley Stokes, _Irische Texte_, and Standish Hayes O’Grady, _Transactions of the Ossianic Society_, Vol. III. Footnote 227: In Gaelic spelling, Fionn mac Cumhail. Footnote 228: Pronounced _Fēna_. Footnote 229: O’Curry: _MS. Materials_, Lecture XIV, p. 303. Footnote 230: Pronounced _Coul_ or _Cooal_. Footnote 231: _Agalamh na Senórach._ Under the title _The Colloquy of the Ancients_, there is an excellent translation of it, from the Book of Lismore, in Standish Hayes O’Grady’s _Silva Gadelica_. Footnote 232: O’Grady: _Silva Gadelica_. Footnote 233: _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 355. Footnote 234: See _The Enumeration of Finn’s Household_, translated by O’Grady in _Silva Gadelica_. Footnote 235: For a good account, see J. G. Campbell’s _The Fians_, pp. 10-80. Footnote 236: In more correct spelling, _Oisin_, and pronounced _Usheen_ or _Isheen_. Footnote 237: Pronounced _Kylta_ or _Cweeltia_. Footnote 238: Pronounced _Gaul_. Footnote 239: Pronounced _Dermat O’Dyna_. Footnote 240: Pronounced _Grania_. Footnote 241: Pronounced _Baskin_. Footnote 242: Now Castleknock, near Dublin. Footnote 243: Pronounced _Demna_. Footnote 244: